A Few Words About Ongoing Reviews of Eligibility for IV-E Adoption Assistance
Continuing Eligibility Reviews have nothing to do with the amount of adoption assistance
Happy New Year! I don’t have much to report, so some of the January posts may be a bit light. As always, feel free to contact me with questions and issues of concern at tpohanlon@gmail.com. I fielded questions from two people this week. The first was about the process of extending Title IV-E Adoption Assistance beyond the age of 18 to the age of 21. See previous post “Extending Adoption Assistance Beyond the Age of 18” August, 2023
The second inquiry concerned the requirements for continuing adoption assistance eligibility. I don’t think we have discussed this before, so a brief review might be in order.
Continuing Eligibility of IV-E Adoption Assistance
Once an agreement for IV-E Adoption Assistance is completed, requirements for continuing eligibility are quite minimal. Federal law identifies three such requirements.
The adoptive parents must have legal responsibility for the child.
The adoptive parents must be providing material/financial support for the child. According to Section 8.2D.5 of the federal Child Welfare Policy Manual, complete or total financial support is not required. Rather, the term “includes various forms of financial support.”
The state or county agency, for example, “may determine that payments for family therapy, tuition, clothing, maintenance of special equipment in the home, or services for the child's special needs, are acceptable forms of financial support.” Accordingly, adoption assistance may continue if the parents are contributing some form of material support. This issue may surface when an adopted child is placed in some form of out of home care.
The child must meet the age requirements, that is be under the age of 18 or 21, depending on his or her individual circumstances.
Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) 5101:2-49-10, also includes verification of the child’s school attendance if the child is of school age. The point to be emphasized here is that ongoing eligibility for IV-E Adoption Assistance is essentially a periodic check in. It is not meant to be a new eligibility determination.
A continuing eligibility review, for example, may not include a new determination of whether or not the child is considered special needs. Ongoing eligibility reviews may not revisit the child’s initial eligibiity determination. An agency may not unilaterally suspend or terminate eligibility for adoption assistance without a Written Notice to the adoptive family that must contain,
The reasons for the proposed action,
The rule or law on which the proposed action is based, and
Information about the family’s right to appeal and how to request a hearing.
The state’s continuing eligibility form is JFS 1451-B. Note: The underlined documents should be accessible by clicking on them as live links.
Remember: Eligibility reviews have nothing to do with re-negotiation of adoption assistance payments due to changes in a child’s needs or the circumstances of the adoptive family.